hello first of all can i just say i know you cant run a petrol engine on diesel but can you run a diesel engine on petrol? that is the question. my daily drive is a corsa diesel and i have once before put a gallon of petrol in to it before realising. so i rang my bro who is a mechanic and he said it would be fine as years ago they used to put a small amount of petrol in to diesel to stop it from freezing in really cold temps. so off i went thinking my car would cough to a holt at any monent but no nothing happened it ran fine, which got me thinking would a diesel run on 100% petrol? and another reason i was thinking this is petrol in my area is 15p a litre cheaper than diesel so it could be a good money saver too. I,ve had a quick look about on the internet but cant find anything out about this only how to run a diesel on veg oil which i used to do untill it got to expensive,

anyone have any thoughts on this??

steven

Ummm...i dont know if i should take this seriously or not

Its not really a good idea. I have heard of the SMALL amount thing being done in very very small ratio's isnt done as much anymore due to the added chemicals in modern fuels.

But overall putting petrol in a diesel is bad news as it messes things up.

If it was a petrol would you put diesel in it? No because it would block the injectors and make your car run like shit.

A garage round my part recently had a lot of claims after petrol got into their diesel with repair bills into the £1000+ mark, one or two cars were written off because the engine was fubard.

Edited 4 January, 200917 yr by Cymro

Must be taking the piss

what reg corsa is it? Veg oil could be a decent solution if it's the older mechanical pump style isuzu lump.

i wasnt taking the piss my car has ran on petrol but i have since found out that a diesel engine does not like a lot of petrol but will run fine on a small percentage but not over about 15%. it was on fifth gear they filled a diesel with petrol and it ran fine but would not restart on petrol unless they added diesel , or so i,ve been told.

question answered

steven

I really hope so otherwise this is going to turn into that pug 106 air intake one. hahaha

Bad times. You could stick some sand in there too and polish your valves.

what reg corsa is it? Veg oil could be a decent solution if it's the older mechanical pump style isuzu lump.

yeah its an old isuzu engine and i ran it on neat cooking oil for around 2 years untill cooking oil became more expensive than diesel i ran it with a seperate oil tank in the boot with a small heater in to heat the oil so it was thinner and it ran fine for well over 50 000 miles

steve

No, you absolutely cannot run your diesel engine on petrol. even a 15% mix is too high IMO.

Diesel compression ratios are much higher than that of a petrol engine. (about 20:1 in my TDI)

petrol engines run around 10:1. much higher then that and the petrol will detonate(expolode), rather then deflagrate(burn). detonation causes the pressure to rise in the cylinder very quickly, much faster then burning the fuel (pressure waves from burning petrol is subsonic, if you detonate petrol the pressure wave will be ~mach 5 - no shit)

now, the big problem is that the detonation of the petrol in a diesel is uncontrolable, and will most likely occur well before the piston reaches TDC. so you have a piston moving up at full force, and a sudden rise in cylinder pressure trying to push it down. Bang goes the piston/rods/block/head/ -you get the idea.

a small amount of petrol is ok, it should cause too much of pressure spike. but much more will kill your engine.

Its more daingerous to run a Diesel on Petrol then it is to run a Petrol on Diesel.

A petrol engine will probably just want a good clean out ie fuel pump, filters injectors etc.

A diesel engine will want a rebuild! If it doesnt do what manic monkey says, the heat from the petrol and lack of oil now in the chambers, from there being less in the fuel, will cause the engine to run very hot. The piston rings would probably give way and start to eat your engine.

No you cant my mum put petrol in her old 307 HDI ran for about 5mile then the petrol come in and killed it cost about £££££££££ to put right

all this because she picked up the wrong pump lol

Edited 5 January, 200917 yr by Po*Low*

no mate, petrol is a bad idea. i run a corsa derv on a `95 as a daily, i have been known over the years to put allsorts down the tank:-

jet A1

avtur f34

veg oil

heating oil

gummy berry juice

waste oil after oil changes - handy for turning all contraband fuel BLACK

virgin and used veggie oil (and i agree with you about the virgin cost being high - u need waste mate)

waste plasticiser from the extraction system above moulding machines (certain % as it would rot the plastic tank and all the rubber seals haha)

but never ever thought about doing what you have just described - PETROL, basically because i understand the fundamentals of an engine, i can understand that you want to keep your oil burning legal (hence not just wacking some red gummy berry juice in) but come on these cars do a good 50mpg and if you drive very carefully and service regularly 60mpg is not uncommon - not exactly expensive to run now derv is below a quid.

personally id be researching "fullers earth and red derv" on google if i wanted to save some pennies :biggrin:

edit - i know your car has no residual value and i guess u were just thinking who cares!!

Edited 5 January, 200917 yr by bobby_hill

A Diesel engine will run on just about anything, Rudolph Diesel ran them on petrol, coal dust and I've even seen them run on peanut butter. The problem is the rest of the components in a fuel system on modern high pressure DERV lumps the fuel pumps and injectors need the higher viscosity and lubrisity of diesel fuel. 15% mixes were common in the 70s in the arctic but we:

A are not in the 70s

B are not in the arctic

Don't do it.

OMG! Someone posted this, too much of the brandy at Christmas and New Year I think.

1) Diesels are on higher compression ratio.

2) Wrecks the pressure pump as Diesel is also a lubricant.

3) WHere's my FAIL IMAGE.....

no mate, petrol is a bad idea. i run a corsa derv on a `95 as a daily, i have been known over the years to put allsorts down the tank:-

jet A1

avtur f34

veg oil

heating oil

gummy berry juice

waste oil after oil changes - handy for turning all contraband fuel BLACK

virgin and used veggie oil (and i agree with you about the virgin cost being high - u need waste mate)

waste plasticiser from the extraction system above moulding machines (certain % as it would rot the plastic tank and all the rubber seals haha)

but never ever thought about doing what you have just described - PETROL, basically because i understand the fundamentals of an engine, i can understand that you want to keep your oil burning legal (hence not just wacking some red gummy berry juice in) but come on these cars do a good 50mpg and if you drive very carefully and service regularly 60mpg is not uncommon - not exactly expensive to run now derv is below a quid.

personally id be researching "fullers earth and red derv" on google if i wanted to save some pennies :biggrin:

edit - i know your car has no residual value and i guess u were just thinking who cares!!

how much does avtur go for nowadays?

am thinking of gettin a diesel daily as i can get hold of it, and i know it used to be cheap...

avtur is a nato fuel and free if you know where to get it, dont think they sell it to the common garden person, jet A1 is similar!

jet A1 - 64 p/l

avgas curently stands at 75 p/l ish

not sure about buying jet fuel in retail form, how to do it etc - suppose it means a trip to the local airfield

wehey thread of the week

you can put a tiny amount in to stop it freezing thats not the same as running it on pure petrol lmao

if you put a gallon in it by mistake then filled the tank with diesel you would be ok on an older diesel engine like yours but even then you shouldnt do that too many times lol

veg oil doubled in price during the summer there its dearer than diesel now lmao well it is where i am

you can run diesels on jet A1, aviation fuel

just dilute it 50/50 wi diesel, or put abita engine oil init

jet a1 works out at 34p a litre

win!

is jet fuel not just kerosene? kereosene is just a higher grade of diesel without some of the lubricants that diesel contains afaik. i know you can run a diesel fine on kerosene as long as you just stick some 2 stroke oil or engine oil or somethin into it to lube the pump

JET a1 is a type of kerosene

but jet a1 is very similar to diesel, just doesnt have the lubricating properties

hence the reason you have to put abit of engine oil in, or dilute it with diesel

and replace the fuel filter more often

tho av got mates at work that have ran 100% jet A1 in a non PD engine and it ran fine!

avgas is different again, leaded fuel iirc

Edited 5 January, 200917 yr by neil_dubgt

jet a1 works out at 34p a litre

win!

i looked up the 64p/l price on shell aviation website - I'm not dealing with the stuff much anymore.

guess u know the price.

thing is if you work within the aviation industry and use the waste jet fuel (or virgin) you can use hyd oil to add the lubricants into the fuel (which is coloured RED haha)

just to reiterate it is illegal to use kerosene on the road full stop

errrrmmmm, no you cant. It might be fine the once as it would have mixed up with the diesel in the tank already. But if it was run on just petrol, all the seals in the fuel pump would break due to them not gettting the proper lube from the diesel.

this is what i have picked up over the years

if you wanna run a diesel on the cheap then make friends with some pikey types and get some dirty red in the bitch. bet i can get that cheaper than your jet a1 shit

jet a1 works out at 34p a litre

win!

i looked up the 64p/l price on shell aviation website - I'm not dealing with the stuff much anymore.

guess u know the price.

thing is if you work within the aviation industry and use the waste jet fuel (or virgin) you can use hyd oil to add the lubricants into the fuel (which is coloured RED haha)

just to reiterate it is illegal to use kerosene on the road full stop

haha red, Mil-H-83282?....just hope you aint putting skydrol in your car

otherwise bye bye lol

hydraulic oil has a much higher flash point tho...so surely it wont burn right well

2 stroke oil is good enuf

Edited 5 January, 200917 yr by neil_dubgt